The Israel lobby can cry about Jewish Australians feeling threatened by every pro-Palestine group and then ASIO will ban the group and cage anyone associating with it for up to 15 years.
Australian Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on ABC discussing new hate speech law. (ABC Screenshot)
By Caitlin Johnstone
in Melbourne, Australia
Caitlin’s Newsletter
Reading by Tim Foley
Australia’s Labor government has successfully passed a “hate speech” bill that’s plainly aimed, at least in part, at suppressing pro-Palestine organizations as “hate groups”.
Free speech advocates are sounding the alarm about the new laws, saying their extremely vague wording, lack of procedural fairness and low thresholds for implementation mean groups can now be banned if they make people feel unsafe or upset without ever actually posing any physical harm to anyone.
For me the most illuminating insight into what these laws are actually designed to do came up in an ABC interview with Attorney-General Michelle Rowland on Tuesday.
Over and over again throughout the interview Rowland was asked by ABC’s David Speers to clarify whether the new laws could see activist groups banned for criticizing Israel and opposing its genocidal atrocities in a way that causes Jewish Australians to feel upset feelings, and she refused to rule out the possibility every single time.
“Let’s just go to what it means in practice: would a group be banned if it accuses Israel of genocide or apartheid, and as a result, Jewish Australians do feel intimidated?” Speers asked.
Rowland didn’t say no, instead saying “there are a number of other factors that would need to be satisfied there” and saying that agencies like the Australian Federal Police (A.F.P.) and the Australian Intelligence Security Organisation (ASIO) would need to make assessments of the situation.
“Okay, just coming back to the practical example though, if a group is suggesting that Israel is guilty of genocide, what other measures or factors would need to be met before they can be banned?” Speers asked.
“Under the provisions that are now before the parliament, there would also need to be able to demonstrate that there are for example, some aspects of state laws that deal with racial vilification that have been met as well,” Rowland responded, again leaving the possibility wide open.
(It should here be noted that Greens justice spokesperson Sen. David Shoebridge has pointed out that “state laws that deal with racial vilification” can include “tests like ‘ridicule’ and ‘contempt’,” meaning people could wind up spending years in prison for associating with groups that were essentially banned for upsetting someone’s feelings.)
“Just to be clear, if a group is saying Israel is engaged in genocide, or they’re saying that Israel should no longer exist, that is not enough for that group to be banned?” asked Speers.
“Well, again, that would depend on the other evidence that is gathered, David, so I would be reluctant to be naming and ruling in and ruling out specific kinds of conduct that you are describing here,” Rowland replied.
All this waffling can safely interpreted as a yes. Rowland is saying yes. Speers pushed this question three different times from three different angles because it’s the most immediate and obvious concern about these new laws, and instead of reassuring the public that they can’t be used to target pro-Palestine groups and aren’t intended for that purpose, the nation’s Attorney General confirmed that it was indeed possible.
So that’s it then. Under the new laws we can expect to see the Israel lobby crying about Jewish Australians feeling threatened and unsafe by every pro-Palestine group under the sun, and then from there all it takes is the thumbs-up from ASIO to put the group on the banned list and cage anyone who continues associating with it for up to 15 years.
The only reason the Attorney General wouldn’t rule out the criminalisation of dissent and criticism of foreign countries and heads of state is if that’s exactly what Labor intends to cover here. pic.twitter.com/rV3e8TRB0l
— David Shoebridge (@DavidShoebridge) January 20, 2026
The bill that ended up making it through Parliament is actually a narrowed down version of an even scarier bill that was scrapped by Labor due to lack of support which went after individuals as well as groups.
The earlier version contained “racial vilification” components which could have been used to target any individual who voices criticisms of Israel or Zionism — so it doesn’t look like I’ll be doing any prison time for my writing any time soon. The new version moved its crosshairs to groups with the obvious intent to disrupt pro-Palestine organizing in Australia.
And we’re already seeing the Israel lobby pushing to resurrect the laws targeting individuals. A new ABC article titled “Jewish leaders call for vilification offence to be revisited as Coalition splits over watered-down hate laws” cites Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler and Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim arguing that the new laws don’t go far enough.
So we can expect the Australian Israel lobby to both (A) push to get pro-Palestine groups classified as “hate groups” under the new laws and (B) keep pushing to make it illegal for individuals to criticize Israel in the form of new “racial vilification” laws. They’ll keep trying over and over again, from government to government to government, until they get their way.
The Israeli lobby in Australia is flat out trying to make anti Israel speech illegal. Imagine being so hated you have to make laws to force people to like you. pic.twitter.com/gCX5Wy7RDU
— Israel Exposed (@xIsraelExposedx) January 20, 2026
This comes after Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council Executive Manager Joel Burnie publicly stated that he wants to ban pro-Palestine protests and criticism of Israel throughout the nation, and as prosecutors drag an Australian woman to court for an antisemitic hate crime because she accidentally butt-dialed a Jewish nutritionist and left a blank voicemail.
So things are already ugly, and they’re getting worse.
It’s so creepy knowing I share a country with people who want to destroy my right to normal political speech. It would never occur to me to try to kill Zionists’ right to free speech, but they very openly want to kill mine. They want to permanently silence me and anyone like me. I find that profoundly disturbing.
Israel supporters are horrible people. And I hope my saying that hurts their feelings.
* * *
In the meantime, I’ve seen some Australians expressing confusion as to whether or not they can still legally criticize Israel online after the new “hate speech” laws were passed under the pretense of combatting “antisemitism”. The answer is yes, and you definitely should keep opposing Israel and its genocidal atrocities.
I am worried that these new laws may indirectly have a bit of a chilling effect on pro-Palestine activism due to Australians not understanding these new laws and what people are allowed to do without being jailed. So let’s clear this up thoroughly so we’re all on the same page.
To be perfectly clear: it is still legal for Australians to oppose Israel and to associate with pro-Palestine groups — and we should. What’s changed is that now those groups can be classified as “hate groups” and banned, similarly to how Palestine Action has been banned in the UK. But this hasn’t happened yet, and hopefully never will. We need to push for these new laws to be repealed, because they look guaranteed to be abused at some point in the future.
Repeal the Speech Suppression Laws | The Information Rights Project https://t.co/DsLIVJvGk4
— ?Mary Kostakidis (@MaryKostakidis) January 21, 2026
Know your rights, Australians:
It is still legal to criticize Israel. So we should criticize it as much as possible, because we don’t know how much longer we’ll have that right.
It is still legal to associate with pro-Palestine groups. So we should do so at every opportunity, because we don’t know when they’ll start listing them as “hate groups” and imprisoning anyone who continues to associate with them.
Unless you are in certain parts of Sydney while the post-Bondi protest ban remains in effect, it is presently fully legal to hold pro-Palestine marches. So attend as many as you are able, because you don’t know when they’ll be shut down altogether.
It is still legal to say that Israel is a genocidal apartheid state, and to share information and opinions about its abuses. So we should do so as much as we can, because we don’t know when that right will be taken away.
It is still legal to state the fact that Zionism is a racist and murderous political ideology and that everything we’ve seen in Gaza is the result of Zionists getting everything they want. So we should say it frequently, because that right could vanish at any time.
It is still legal to say “Fuck Israel, free Palestine.” So we should say it loud and say it often, because we don’t know how much longer we’ll be allowed to do so without getting thrown into prison.
The Israel lobby is working frenetically to crush free speech in Australia, and the swamp monsters in Canberra are either actively facilitating this agenda or doing far too little to stop it. The more aggressively they work to take away our right to oppose Israel, the more aggressively we need to oppose both them and Israel.
We’re not just fighting for Gaza anymore, we’re fighting for our own civil rights, and for our children, and for our grandchildren. They’re actively assaulting our ability to speak critically of power and make this nation a more tyrannical place. The only appropriate response to this is ferocious defiance.
Our future depends on it.
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The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
I’d like to add to Valerie’s response to Johnny:
In today’s growing (and may I say ‘psychopathic’) authoritarian geo-political climate ‘change’, primarily run by WEF/Tri-Lateralist (along with current Tech-) Oligarchs of all stripes, they are all, collectively, hedging their mutual bets, operating as One Criminal Syndicate chasing the same goal: Unsustainable profits and resources. They’ve come to realize (after some ‘sustained’ pillaging of the planet) tis better to work together than continue fighting over the “dregs” they’ve created. They know the current monetary and ecological systems are collapsing, so all is a last ditch effort to seize control of what’s left…to centralize and ‘tokenize’.
The global populous is, and will continue to be, their primary resource of extraction to the end.
As an American taxpayer, I am a supporter of Israel, and yes, it hurts a lot to be reminded of this horrible deed. But I’m no snowflake about it.
If calling a genocide a genocide hurts someone’s feelings (because they feel guilty? or because they don’t?), we could try to make them feel welcome instead (inclusivity!). The earliest zionists were christians, and though we didn’t succeed in Palestine, we did take Zion in Utah (and everything from the sea to the sea). So, they are not alone in ethnic cleansing by chosen people, though we did it hundreds of years earlier, and ours is way better. Are we allowed to say that?
In fact, since Israel couldn’t have done so much damage without the US, they can feel better about it because it wouldn’t have happened without us. Blame us instead! I’m not thin-skinned about this. I would support a global boycott against the US.
Really, guys, you need a much thicker skin to pull off a genocide. Time to leave the nest and fly on your own.
Is the australian government acknowledging the International Court Of Justice?
Apart from that-
Attention is to be payed to the fact, that many zionists just pretend to be jewish/ religious.
Like many criminals generally do within other religious entities for more or less the same reason.
They are hiding their evil deeds and intentions behind a holy curtain like this.
And the jewish are blamed for the crimes, the mass murdering zionists (of course not hesitating to kill jews in what is still called ‘israel’ as well, see ‘hannibal directive’ for example) actually commit, using the people attached to the jewish religion as scapegoats.
A very dangerous situation for the jewish community worldwide, and perhaps soon other bothering minorities as well.
So please, kindly differentiate between individuals truly belonging to the jewish religion, and those severely criminal zionists just pretending to be religious, while simply enriching themselves.
Not sure whether you are conscious of this initiative:
jewsdemandaction dot org
Is the “success” of this legal effort a clear indication that it correlates with the power of Israeli Zionists in positions of power in the Australian government and Australia white supremicist oligarchs yanking political blackmail – throwing their weight around to squash legitimate witnessing and truth telling about the utter vileness of Netanyahu, his government and – too -the of the percentage of Israelis -desiring the complete annihilation of the Palestinians in Gaza -which number 60 percent of the Israeli citizenry.
Madness. Off the charts. Both the murderers and the obsequious and so as vile colluders posing as the ‘opposition.’
The total legal protection of Israel, Zionism, Judaism ( as well as of Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism,
Communism, Neo Liberalism etc etc) from debate and criticism must not be allowed in Australia or anywhere else.
Not to be able to condemn a fascist Genocide in Gaza or murder, destruction and theft in the West Bank of Occupied Palestine for fear of legal reprisals would undermine totally both morality and the law.
Any doubters should try watching the film currently showing called The Voice of Hind Rajab and FEEL again.
While it is imperative that laws such as these be denounced and defeated, I wonder if it is not also of value to gain a deeper understanding of how it is that many Zionists literally do claim to have ‘hurt feelings’ when the ongoing genocide is brought to their attention?
I ask, as a member of my extended family (a Zionist) let me know that I had ‘hurt her feelings’ because of a “Cease Fire Now” sticker on the back of my car. This is someone who, in many other ways, is kind and gentle.
I am flummoxed to understand how wanting an immediate cease fire can hurt anyone’s feelings. And yet… I can only add that I think that as we are able to develop a deep understanding of how it is that descendants of the Holocaust have adopted and are carrying out the very genocidal actions carried out against them by the Nazis. An understanding followed by a commitment to undertake whatever is humane in order to, once and for all, eliminate cruelty in all its forms from being carried out anywhere at any time.
Perhaps, “the hurt” stems from long lived entitlement and sense of superiority cultivated by the Biblical “chosen people”. If you are so special, God-special, then any blemish or pure ugliness like committing genocide on the Palestinian population – certainly would be felt like an insult – as in “how dare they criticize God’s special children.” Unconscious stuff. Give unto God what is God’s and unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s. Living for generations under the rarified spiritual identity as “chosen above all” may block/twist perception of the blooded evils of Ceasar.Their mortal creature existence running like a thread through all humanity.
The origin of the genocide of Palestine began long before the Holocaust. I recommend reading Ilan Pappe and Joseph Massad and any decent real history of zionism and the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. The Brits occupied Palestine for about 20 years after WWI and handed it over to the european Jewish immigrants, and then those zionists massacred Palestinians to establish their own state for only Jews. Not only that – zionism is based on the belief that Jews are not a religion, but a nationality, and most Jews outside of Israel do not follow it, and some say it is a sect all its own. It has nothing to do with the Holocaust.
You cannot reason with a zionist over “hurt feelings” when your government is threatening to toss you into a dungeon and take away all your human rights just because you “hurt feelings”. That’s never possible. It’s fascist.
To be clear: The question is not why someone has hurt feelings. Everyone has a right to feel what they feel, even if they like genocide. The question is why your government needs to be zionist and kill people with your money. And then tell you to shut up about it!
The glaring flaw in the legal logic is that a person with ‘hurt’ feelings isn’t the victim of an attack of any sort, unless the statement was made with the obvious intent to hurt them personally.
They have a choice about whether to take offence, and even if they do the responsibility, or blame if you like, rests on them – not you. You should not be penalised for their failure to interpret the statement appropriately – as it was intended.
Your Cease Fire Now sticker obviously is not intended to hurt anyone – any fool can see that.
I’ll repeat what I posted under Lauria’s article on this same disturbing topic:
Soft power hasn’t worked to stuff this glorious enlightenment genie back into the bottle. So now these bastards are resorting to naked force and outright hard power to squelch criticism and shutdown understanding and awareness.
Make no mistake, it’s starting in Australia, but it’ll likely make its way here soon. Merely look at the Zionist mayor of Miami Beach siccing the local cops on that resident last week who made a condemnatory post of Israel on social media.
This ultimately isn’t going to work, no matter how much money Paul Singer, Adelson, or Haim Saban toss around. The Zionists are over playing their hand; an inevitable backlash looms.
What courageous, independent, outspoken humans we have representing us in aUStralia.
Question is: Which Empire have they been most grovelling to:
The British, the USians, or the Chosen?
All three Johnny. Hedging their bets.
It sounds as though this Rowlands person is a mole, or fifth columnist, installed by enemies of Australia to undermine Australia’s political institutions and erode the rights and liberties of Australian Citizens.
Fifth columnists are traitors. They need to be arrested for treason.
Please elaborate Maria.
A mole for who? And who exactly might these enemies of Australia be?
One tactic that seems like it could be effective is to gather examples of hate speech directed at Arabs, Palestinians, liberals, leftist peace activists, etc. This kind of hateful speech is a constant of mainstream broadcasters. And around the world many attacks on Muslims, black people, indigenous people, etc. have resulted.